Ki Sisa: Missing Shekalim

כי תישא את-ראש בני-ישראל, לפקודיהם, ונתנו איש כופר נפשו ליהוה, בפקוד אותם; ולא-יהיה בהם נגף, בפקוד אותם

Exodus “12 'When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel, according to their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.”

I agree that the logistics of counting 600,000 or so men without the benefit of modern technology might be difficult, so counting the coins instead of the men, and having the men stand around for idle hours or perhaps days while the count and recount continue might be the better option.

Personally, however, I find this head tax degrading. Only my shekels count to Moshe. If you have ever wondered why it is so easy to feel insignificant living within the religious Jewish community, your questions are about to be answered. It seems, and for no apparent reason, that counting humans directly causes disease, plague, and death. Therefore, when you are in shul and men are being tallied for the minyan, that one counts ‘not 1’, ‘not 2’, etc. Even when you are there and necessary, you are considered a ‘not!’

The concept of a head tax is not new. The threat of death for non-payment isn’t new either. In the early history of the fledgling United States, a head tax was proposed for voting. If you paid the tax, you became eligible to vote. Distasteful as that seems to us today, it is still much preferable to the head tax of Ki Sisah. At least Hamilton and his ilk were not proposing a death penalty, and when the tax was paid, the person had at least some say in how the nation was to be governed. In Ki Sisa, no such benefit existed. It was pay up or die, though the specific sort of death was never specified.

Not for nothing, but let’s say for argument’s sake that the direct counting of human beings DOES, in fact, bring death and destruction upon the counted. Then why not have them bring stones or slips of papyrus with names on them? Wouldn’t that just as good a system and have the added advantage of knowing the exact names of the Bnei Yisroel? Why only silver? Then what about every counting since then? Can we attribute the deaths from Arab terrorism on the way that Israeli football coaches count their players?

The other question goes to enforcement, too. How did Moshe know who paid and who didn’t? We only assume that everyone acquiesced and forked over the shekels. Yet, as we know from experience, there are always people who refuse to pay their taxes, and if this occurred in the Dor Hamidbar, then the entire census would be wrong. You may answer by saying that the Dor Hamidbar complied with Moshe’s demands, but I find that hard to believe. This ‘Am Keshay Oref’ was trouble before this and would be trouble afterwards. Lots of trouble. So I am not convinced that each and every one paid this head tax.

The idea that the ‘wealthy shall not give more nor the impoverished man less” seems quite appealing at first glance. After all, is not each man equal before HaShem, especially if we are speaking of kofer nefesh (ransom) which does not discriminate between rich and poor? Besides, how could you get an accurate count if everyone gave different amounts? In both the spiritual and practical sense, the idea of an equal tax for each person seems appropriate. In this way, none could claim a greater chelek in the Mishkan than another. Some people giving more and others giving less would screw up the census anyhow.

What bothers me is a bigger question that might not have anything to do with shekalim or pikudim. We are told that the Bnei Yisroel left Mitzrayim with ‘rechush gadol’ (great wealth.) I may be assuming wrongly, but I was under the impression that once they escaped Shibud Mitzrayim they were then compensated for their avodas perech , which, if I am not mistaken, they ALL suffered from equally! So how is it that just a few weeks out of Mitzrayim that there are already Jews so poor that they couldn’t afford the tax of half a shekel? Was there a casino in the middle of the machaneh? Maybe an opium den?

If this collection was to be used for the expenses incurred during the building and maintenance of the Mishkan, I am at a loss to account for the bulk of it. As it is, very little of the Mishkan was made of silver. There were some silver vessels, but most everything else was brass or gold. So where did the huge cache of silver go? Now you might say that the silver was used to pay the craftsmen who designed and engineered the different parts of the Mishkan, and that would be reasonable except for one little problem. What did anybody need money for in the Midbar? According to Chazal, all of their needs were met; food, shelter, and warmth all provided by HaShem. So what the hell would they need money for? And why wouldn’t they have simply volunteered their time and effort seeing that they had nothing better to do? If I had all my need provided, then I would have no trouble donating my time to a worthy cause. One would have to conclude that the kohanim pocketed the money.

My suspicion is that Moshe, right after installing Aharon and his sons in positions of religious authority, began collecting on their behalf right away in order to solidify the new caste system by getting the people accustomed to handing their earnings over to the Kohanim, perhaps under the guise of building funds and/or salaries. It’s a nice little venture; pay up or someone dies and, should you complain, death will be your punishment. Nothing like a good threat to keep everyone in lock-step.

The Other Side of the Story

One fact remains eternally true; silver is always in greater abundance and gold is always more expensive. People tend to hoard their gold, not only because of its greater value, but if you have to shlep everything you own across the Midbar, it makes sense to travel lightly. Moshe knew that the people would not easily part with their gold for this reason. There fore, Moshe asked for a half shekel of silver, something abundant and not too valuable. Moshe also realized that some Jews, being poorer now (for some reason) would not have a half-shekel of gold laying around. In order to keep the overall contributions even for everyone, Moshe had to deal in a currency that everyone most likely carried, that being common silver.

Yet, this doesn’t answer the question of the missing shekalim. If we know now why Moshe asked for silver rather than the gold he really needed, and even factoring in salaries for the kohanim, then our facts about gold, as a precious metal, might answer the problem. Besides, Moshe already collected enough gold back in Parshas Terumah. Or did he?

The Torah says that there were both wealthy and poor among the Bnei Yisroel. Maybe wealthy meant having the things that they really needed for the Mishkan, and not the standard sense of more and less. The wealth Moshe speaks of is a specific wealth for a specific purpose. This wealth is gold. By collecting more silver than what was needed, Moshe ended up with a surplus of capital that would be used to purchase the gold from those who had enough of it to fulfill the requirements of the Mishkan. Since more gold is more precious than silver, the trade accounts for the missing shekalim. Buy purchasing gold rather than having it freely donated, the ‘equality’ clause would not be violated.

Moshe applied some practical know-how and business sense to the issue.

The only problem with this scenario is that the Torah doesn’t say as much. The Torah paints a picture of Bnei Yisroel giving an overabundance of goods for the Mishkan. So, we are back to our original question. What did Moshe really use the money for?

No?

Just asking the questions. They might be dumb ones. Dare to enlighten me.